Experimental quantification of a novel reverberation chamber diffusing panel

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2010-10, Vol.128 (4_Supplement), p.2464-2464
• Main Authors: Diaz, Candido, Bradley, David T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.3508827

In this project, a 1:5 scale reverberation chamber was designed, built, and tested. The envelope geometry of the chamber was chosen to produce an isotropic sound field and uniform modal response. To further scatter the sound energy, several randomly placed reflective panels were installed in the room. Additionally, a novel diffuser panel with resonating properties was characterized and utilized in the chamber design. The properties of this diffuser/resonator will be discussed. Objective data from measured impulse responses for several configurations of the reflective panels and diffuser/resonators will be presented. These data will be compared with minimum reverberation time (RT) values specified in ISO 345. The level of diffusivity will be shown using the RT standard deviation between receivers as specified in ASTM C423. Finally, the modal response of the chamber will be discussed. These data were analyzed to determine the appropriate number of reflective panels and optimum panel configuration. An overview of this optimization process will be presented. A computer model of the chamber was also analyzed in ODEON; computational and measured results will be compared and contrasted. [Work partially funded by the ASA Diversity in Acoustics Committee and the National Society of Black/Hispanic Physicists.]